THIS IS A GREAT READ...DO IT
But a man named Ananias—his wife, Sapphira, conniving in this with him—sold a piece of land, secretly kept part of the price for himself, and then brought the rest to the apostles and made an offering of it.
Peter said, "Ananias, how did Satan get you to lie to the Holy Spirit and secretly keep back part of the price of the field? Before you sold it, it was all yours, and after you sold it, the money was yours to do with as you wished. So what got into you to pull a trick like this? You didn't lie to men but to God."
Ananias, when he heard those words, fell down dead. That put the fear of God into everyone who heard of it. The younger men went right to work and wrapped him up, then carried him out and buried him.
Not more than three hours later, his wife, knowing nothing of what had happened, came in. Peter said, "Tell me, were you given this price for your field?"
"Yes," she said, "that price."
Peter responded, "What's going on here that you connived to conspire against the Spirit of the Master? The men who buried your husband are at the door, and you're next." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than she also fell down, dead. When the young men returned they found her body. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
By this time the whole church and, in fact, everyone who heard of these things had a healthy respect for God. They knew God was not to be trifled with.
~Acts 5:1-11~
Much of the western church's ministry model is broken - relying heavily on the arm of the flesh, human reasoning, psychology, and perhaps more easily understood - self confidence.
I was trained in the ministry, that any bad thoughts I had or torment I was experiencing, were the result of my sinful nature and residual demonic power operating from some hidden part of my old nature. The truth as I first received it from the Holy Spirit, a truth which was then argued away by men who were my leaders and GREAT leaders in the Christian world let me add, is still the truth today, and this is it...
Ready?
Any dark thought, tormenting thing, enticement to sin...EVERY wickedness which presents itself as an option to the Blood bought believer, is the work of a demon masquerading as one's thoughts. They are but attacks which when met with abandoned praise and worship of Jesus...dissolve without harm. The more persistent one is in availing themselves of true grace, the less of a target these demons find, until fairly quickly, the Blood bought believer's chief battle is not with sin and the temptation to sin, but with the effective expression and advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven.
When one is taught that THEY have been given TOTAL power over ALL the work of the enemy...that THEY are responsible for taking up the weapons of the warfare and fighting...not from a place of defensiveness, but from the place of overwhelming VICTORY won for us by Jesus at Calvary, they are given at least the proper tools for obtaining salvation by continuing on in the faith.
The Father has been showing me that He is preparing His bride for the return of the Bridegroom, but before Jesus comes back...He will send His glory. Before He sends His glory upon the earth in unprecedented manifestations of power, He is raising up messengers to prepare His people for His coming glory.
I've seen how in the early church the people who observed the followers of the Way, were awestruck and afraid to join them. In fact, in one verse, the book of Acts says many were afraid and did not join them, while in the next verse it says great numbers of those WHO BELIEVED, joined them and were added to them every day.
THOSE WHO DID NOT BELIEVE, DARED NOT JOIN THEM! THOSE WHO BELIEVED, JOINED THEM IN GREAT NUMBERS!
Consider Jesus when approached by the rich young ruler. Today, most ministers would fall all over themselves to get that guy "saved" and plugged in...ASAP. Jesus recognized that the young man held idols in his heart and gave him the option of renouncing those idols or forgetting about joining Him!
God says the same thing today. True conversion results from true repentance. True repentance results in total freedom from every power of hell; past, present and future. True repentance ensures that the past is under the Blood, the present is under the Blood, and the future is under the Blood - because the fruit of true repentance leaves no more room for demonic rule in the life of the believer.
I say by the Holy Spirit that many conversions today are nothing more than emotional (and most not even that) decisions to "try out a new life with Jesus." As the Lord restores right understanding to His people of what a true conversion looks like, many will realize they have never even known God...they have merely known about Him, maybe encountered Him once or twice, and at best spent a lot of time in the company of others who also claim to know Him with little or no evidence to support their claim.
Becoming a true believer requires that one trust in Him and ONLY in Him...not money, not other people, not your own strength, understanding, or resources. BELIEVE in Jesus of Nazareth, that He is who He says He is, that He has actually done what He says he's done! Trust God and you shall be saved.
"Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon.
*But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both.*
They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter's shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed."
~Galatians 5:12-16~
Throne Room Light
Rick~December 2010
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